The San Jose Sharks (12-21-8, seventh in the Pacific) make their first visit to Mullett Arena, where the team will face the Arizona Coyotes (13-21-5, seventh in Central). These two teams last played each other on December 13. San Jose cruised to a 3-2 win, thanks to goals from Tomas Hertl, Nick Bonino and Nico Sturm, while James Reimer stopped 20 of 22 shots to hold a lead in the third period.
Arizona is coming off a 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night to kick off a three-game homestand. The Desert Dogs came first on the board, but allowed four straight goals en route to a fifth straight loss. Barret Hayton opened the scoring and Karel Vejmelka made 24 saves on 27 shots, but the Yotes couldn’t slow down Sidney Crosby, who assisted on both of Jake Guentzel’s goals.
The Sharks hung out with arguably the NHL’s best team, the Boston Bruins, on Saturday night. Special teams made the difference, as Boston scored on the power play and ended San Jose’s stumbling skater advantage. While goals from Logan Couture and Mario Ferraro helped crawl towards a possible comeback, David Pastrnak proved to be too much, scoring back-to-back goals to make the game 4-2.
Since the last time these two teams saw each other, both have gone on enduring losing streaks. The Coyotes are currently on a five-game skid after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs for the fourth straight time and the Sharks have two wins in the last 10 games. Both teams are preparing for a prime opportunity in the upcoming draft by racking up losses. A win for Arizona would give the team a points lead, down two games.
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On the injury side, Coyotes forward Liam O’Brien has a regular upper-body injury and rookie Matias Maccelli is out for six weeks with a lower-body injury suffered just before Christmas. Maccelli had scored 22 points in 30 games before his injury. Sharks defenseman Radim Simek was placed on injured reserve on Friday after sustaining a blow to the head against the Dallas Stars. Nikolai Knyzhov is continuing his comeback from off-season Achilles surgery and has now been cleared to be contacted in training.
Special teams in trouble
While, on paper, San Jose’s penalty looks solid at 84% on the season, the foundation has slowly crumbled. In the 26 games from Oct. 6 to Nov. 30, the penalty kill was 91.5 percent effective, the best in the NHL. Since December 1, that mark has fallen to 72.9%, 24th in the league in that span.
The biggest problem? James Reimer was the team’s top penalty taker this season and missed the first half of December.
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With Reimer missing the first half of the month through injury and slowly recovering to form, the penalty kill suffered. Reimer at his best corrects mistakes and makes San Jose’s penalty kill better than it really is. They can’t afford it to be less.
Arizona’s power play is just behind San Jose at 20.3%. The Sharks are going to have to tighten special teams ahead of a massive East Coast swing to end the month and the Yotes should provide a good chance to do that.
Is Kevin Labanc good again?
One of the many players who have thrived under head coach David Quinn’s system is Kevin Labanc. After missing most of last season with a shoulder injury, Labanc has found his form this year. He ranks fifth on the team in goals (9) and sixth in points (23). Playing with Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier will make life easier for everyone, but Labanc has also provided line defense, allowing Timo Time to be more frequent.
Labanc has done most of his best work at even strength. Labanc earned a reputation early in his career as a power-play specialist, but the winger has officially shed that label — 20 of his 23 points have been tied this season.
The trade deadline is fast approaching and it will be interesting to see if people start calling about the 27-year-old striker as he still has one year left on his $18.9million contract over four. years. But his value has certainly increased with Quinn behind the bench.
New arena, who say?
It’s the first visit of the season to Mullett Arena and Tempe should provide a lively atmosphere. The 5,000-seat arena gained a surprising reputation in its first season. The Coyotes are 7-4-2 at Mullett, compared to the Sharks who are currently 4-11-6 at the Tank. There could be a real advantage on the home ice for a team that has been missing it for some time.
Arizona was a team that scored more goals in the third period than in the first period. If the ‘Yotes can get one early and tip Mullett, the game could end just as quickly as it started.
Desert dogs have wandered Arizona trying to find their home, but for now they can nestle in Mullett waiting for the future.
Bold prediction: Kevin Labanc scores, but Mullett’s power is just too much. 3-2, ‘Yots.